TOKYO —Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO) on Wednesday applied to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to increase household power rates by an average 10.23% from next April.

In filing its application, KEPCO, Japan’s most nuclear-reliant utility that provides power to the country’s second biggest metropolitan area, said that its corporate survival was “at risk.”

The utility is expected to log its fourth straight annual loss this year and KEPCO president Makoto Yagi told reporters in Osaka earlier this month that the firm would shed even more red ink in fiscal year 2015 without a rate hike.

All 48 of Japan’s nuclear reactors were gradually taken offline after the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeast Japan following an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

The shutdown has forced nuclear operators to turn to more expensive fossil fuels to run power stations, pushing most of them into a sustained period of losses.

KEPCO needs the industry ministry’s approval to hike rates for consumers. The last increase was in May 2013.

KEPCO said it will also increase rates for businesses by an average of 13.93%, TBS reported.